| The good news for a company that is out to | | | | scale up to 582 10 GbE ports per rack, using either |
| dominate an industry is that you can tell you've | | | | single or modular versions of the ExtremeXOS |
| succeeded when all the other players out there start | | | | operating system, plus built-in automation through the |
| gunning for you. The bad news, though, is that now | | | | system's Universal Port. It also provides for XML, CLI |
| all the other players are gunning for you. | | | | and SNMP interfaces with the company's EPICenter |
| That's the situation Cisco Systems finds itself in as it | | | | management system. |
| seeks to control all things Ethernet in the data center. | | | | Juniper Networks, meanwhile, is taking dead aim at |
| The company has made no secret that it wants to | | | | some of Cisco's premiere customers with the EX |
| see 10 GbE become the fabric for network | | | | 8216, a half-rack version of the EX 8208 that doubles |
| convergence, unified communications and all other | | | | the number of modular slots to 16 and offers |
| means of getting digital information from one place | | | | support for a wider range of cards, such as an 8-port |
| to another. And judging by the way the rest of the | | | | 10 GbE design, a 48-port 10/100/1,000 GbE unit and a |
| networking community is reacting, it appears it is on | | | | 46-port 1 GbE card. The system runs on the new |
| the right track. | | | | Junos 9.5 release that features a module design so |
| Take the switch industry, which saw a slew of new | | | | you can add applications and toolkits without taking |
| products and systems introduced this week, many of | | | | down the entire OS. |
| them charged with stealing Cisco's thunder in one | | | | And from Brocade, we're seeing the new ServerIron |
| way or another. | | | | ADX, which the company bills as an application |
| 3Com, for example, came out with a new line of | | | | delivery platform with twice the port density of |
| "flex-chassis" switches for its H3C portfolio which it | | | | other systems, capable of delivering up to 70 Gbps |
| hopes will be the launch pad to retake the North | | | | of Layer 4 and 7 application throughput. The system |
| American market. The device offers up to 192 10 | | | | comes in 1, 4 and 8 RU designs, providing up to 16 10 |
| GbE ports or 640 1 GbE ports, plus a host of extras | | | | GbE ports and a high-density multicore/multichip |
| such as support for extensible application services, | | | | application processing plane supporting improved |
| namely for security, wireless access and monitoring | | | | performance and core-based virtualization. It also |
| functions. It also sports open standards and | | | | features the company's Content Switching |
| low-power chipsets that reduce consumption by | | | | framework that governs rules, policies and |
| nearly a third. | | | | configuration details to enable multivendor application |
| Extreme Networks is also stepping up to the plate, | | | | switching and content transformation. |
| launching a new module for its BlackDiamond 8800 | | | | If anything, these new releases are a sign of a |
| switch that the company says can provide greater | | | | healthy switch economy. Cisco may be the top data |
| density and lower operating costs than the rest of | | | | center network provider, but there are still plenty of |
| the field. Each BlackDiamond 8900-Series module | | | | alternatives out there for enterprises looking to fulfill |
| holds a 24-port 10 GbE card, a 96-port 1 GbE card | | | | specific needs. |
| and 128/80 Gb/slot fabric capability. The system can | | | | |